How would you make Masterchief a more compelling and flawed character?

[azncutthroat]

If you want to know more about MC-117, read the Halo novels. Particularly "The Fall of Reach."

Spoiler

Master Chief, as a child, was the Alpha Male (aka the playground bully). Although he turned out to be a natural leader, he's consistently characterized as a guy who will stop at nothing to win. While that's portrayed in a rather positive way, I'd take his "determination" with a grain of salt.

 

[Pimppeter2]

The whole point of the Spartan project is to make soldiers, not cry babies.

Yes, I can see this as an excuse not to have much character development, but it wouldn't make much sense other wise. Now a prequel into before Chief was the last Spartan would make this all right.

 

[funksobeefy]

I liked master chief because they didn't reveal the face nor make him a real character besides marine nor even give him a name (in the first game)

So when I played I always liked to think that I was under the armour and that it was a story of me as a spartan lost in space fighting against the Covenant. Made the game so much more personal and more fun when I played it with friends cause we were in the fight together. Games that give protagonists names just put a huge gap between you and them that they have to make up with story. With no name it becomes who you want it to be and the story follows what you want to happen. Not as much as a RPG but still a bit of awesome role play that was missed in the 2nd and 3rd games.

I guess thats why I liked the first game so much.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Personally, I don't think Master Chief needs to be changed. Given his background (particularly as given in the books) and the character development he does have, he's pretty much perfect for the role he plays.

We don't really need another maudlin hero with a tragic past who wavers between balls to the wall heroics and emo pseudo depression, we have enough of those. Master Chief has enough depth and attitude to be a well fleshed out character, and he pretty much exists to kick ass. That's it, that's all.

 

[The Unskilled78]

I think the Master Chief is exactly what somebody should become with the childhood/training he had.
I assume the Halo books are mostly canon. The Flood (aka the game in novel-form) is iffy. Anything else I could said has already been said more effectivly by my forerunners

 

[Hiphophippo]

Well, you can start by making Master Chief human. Take him out of that space suit is a good place to start. All the characters from the original generation of FPS, Sarge, Duke Nukem, and BJ, did not need armor and they got along fine.

Give him a face and a personality. I am pretty sure that most players like the nameless and faceless approach because it is easier to project themselves onto him without it. As for the rest of us, it does not work because it makes him too unapproachable.

Then give him a little back story: What was it like in the Spartan labs? Why is he the only one left? How does that knowledge affect him? Does our hero want to do something else other than kill? What was the ultimate point of Spartan? Was it purely a militaristic thing? Or did it have something more sinister?

Now, to add instant conflict, what if there is another survivor of Spartan? What if this survivor is working for some alien group and it up to our protagonist to kill him?

This is not difficult to do. This is Creative writing 101. Answer all those questions well and you have the foundations of a series of stories.

Take another character along the same vein and copy him a little bit. We all know Kratos is a homicidal maniac who thinks genocide is the best answer to any situation. We also get a back story as to why he does all the things he is doing: Deal with the devil that backfired on his face. He is not allowed to kill himself, so he turns his anger towards the heavens. Well, we have a minimal backstory and we understand why he is a monster.

I would play this game. I think you just fixed Halo.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Well, you can start by making Master Chief human. Take him out of that space suit is a good place to start. All the characters from the original generation of FPS, Sarge, Duke Nukem, and BJ, did not need armor and they got along fine.

Give him a face and a personality. I am pretty sure that most players like the nameless and faceless approach because it is easier to project themselves onto him without it. As for the rest of us, it does not work because it makes him too unapproachable.

Then give him a little back story: What was it like in the Spartan labs? Why is he the only one left? How does that knowledge affect him? Does our hero want to do something else other than kill? What was the ultimate point of Spartan? Was it purely a militaristic thing? Or did it have something more sinister?

Now, to add instant conflict, what if there is another survivor of Spartan? What if this survivor is working for some alien group and it up to our protagonist to kill him?

This is not difficult to do. This is Creative writing 101. Answer all those questions well and you have the foundations of a series of stories.

Take another character along the same vein and copy him a little bit. We all know Kratos is a homicidal maniac who thinks genocide is the best answer to any situation. We also get a back story as to why he does all the things he is doing: Deal with the devil that backfired on his face. He is not allowed to kill himself, so he turns his anger towards the heavens. Well, we have a minimal backstory and we understand why he is a monster.

I would play this game. I think you just fixed Halo.

And made it pretty much have the same story/backstory as every other action game in the past, oh, 5 or so years.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Well, you can start by making Master Chief human. Take him out of that space suit is a good place to start. All the characters from the original generation of FPS, Sarge, Duke Nukem, and BJ, did not need armor and they got along fine.

Give him a face and a personality. I am pretty sure that most players like the nameless and faceless approach because it is easier to project themselves onto him without it. As for the rest of us, it does not work because it makes him too unapproachable.

Then give him a little back story: What was it like in the Spartan labs? Why is he the only one left? How does that knowledge affect him? Does our hero want to do something else other than kill? What was the ultimate point of Spartan? Was it purely a militaristic thing? Or did it have something more sinister?

Now, to add instant conflict, what if there is another survivor of Spartan? What if this survivor is working for some alien group and it up to our protagonist to kill him?

This is not difficult to do. This is Creative writing 101. Answer all those questions well and you have the foundations of a series of stories.

Take another character along the same vein and copy him a little bit. We all know Kratos is a homicidal maniac who thinks genocide is the best answer to any situation. We also get a back story as to why he does all the things he is doing: Deal with the devil that backfired on his face. He is not allowed to kill himself, so he turns his anger towards the heavens. Well, we have a minimal backstory and we understand why he is a monster.

I would play this game. I think you just fixed Halo.

And made it pretty much have the same story/backstory as every other action game in the past, oh, 5 or so years.

Sure, you're right of course, but everything has already been done anyway. What matters is how the story is told anyways.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

The Master Chief is a much more dynamic character in the novels, even if they're not the greatest pieces of fiction. That said, he's a force to move the overarching plot along, rather than the crux of it. The Arbiter is a much more personal story, that's why his character and personality matter so much more.

exactly, ppl read the books before you criticize master chief, jeesh, im not saying you HAVE to, but if you make a thread about it, read up on him first, i personally loved the books, and you really got to get into his head alot more in the books, he had to be emotionally detached for the most part because most of the stuff around him died so he didn't have time to care

and i agree, the arbiter came from a actual world with emotion and life where master chief was a bred monster or "demon"

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Then give him a little back story: What was it like in the Spartan labs? Why is he the only one left? How does that knowledge affect him? Does our hero want to do something else other than kill? What was the ultimate point of Spartan? Was it purely a militaristic thing? Or did it have something more sinister?

All this stuff is discussed in detail in the first installment in the Halo franchise.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Well, you can start by making Master Chief human. Take him out of that space suit is a good place to start. All the characters from the original generation of FPS, Sarge, Duke Nukem, and BJ, did not need armor and they got along fine. ...

I would play this game. I think you just fixed Halo.

And made it pretty much have the same story/backstory as every other action game in the past, oh, 5 or so years.

Sure, you're right of course, but everything has already been done anyway. What matters is how the story is told anyways.

It's a bit of give and take.. I don't mind a cliched character set if the story is good, and I don't mind a cliched story if the character set is interesting. I'm just not sure I see how making Master Chief into "generic action hero of the day" would make Halo better. To each his own I guess.

 

[eddielovato]

i would make him a drug addict

 

[Freshman]

make master chief have some sort of defect where he has to randomly murder marines from time to time, and then expect cortana to be proud of him, like when your cat kills a bird, and then brings it to you.

 

[Hiphophippo]

It's a bit of give and take.. I don't mind a cliched character set if the story is good, and I don't mind a cliched story if the character set is interesting. I'm just not sure I see how making Master Chief into "generic action hero of the day" would make Halo better. To each his own I guess.

I'm just an optimist. I would argue that nearly any attempt at story beyond what is there would make for a more compelling game. My issue with Halo has never been the gameplay because I've always thought it competent. And it certainly has a music score most games should take notes from, but the core premise has always been so bland.

Interject a little life, any life really, into it and it would only be the better for it.

 

[Vigilantis]

So, how would you write his character to be more interesting?

I'd have him take off his helmet to show that he is in fact a grunt standing on stilts powering a super armor suit slaughtering his own kind. And then I'd call Duke Nukem to come shrink chief down to the size of a mouse and squish him between the treads of his boot.

 

[Chrislt]

I'd make him less un-killable, make him remove his helmet once and a while, and I'd give him a family.
Flaws, a face and other little master chiefs running around. You know, like what us humans have.
...
Oh, and I'd have him die at the end, but that's just me being a jerk.

 

[Treblaine]

Wait. Master chief can even be said to have any "character".

He's more like Chuck Norris, a pastiche, like "oh Master Chief would do that" but no real characteristics you could identify. Don't know about the expanded universe of comics and books but the character should stand up on the games alone and there is virtually noting there.

 

[Vrex360]

Starting from the top I'm just going to point out that I prefer the Arbiter to the Masterchief as a protagonist in the Halo universe but now that that's out of the way:

I would portray the Chief pretty much as he was in the books, quick thinking, determined and very quiet. One major thing to his character and indeed all the Spartans is that he was abducted as a child and sent off to undergo a lifetime of training from hell while his parents believed him to be dead. With no childhood to speak of pretty soon the only aspect of his personality remaining would be the new enforced militaization.
His major flaw would be obvious, the inability to socially interact with other people, his whole life and everything about him is now exclusivley about the military and fighting, hence part of him would have to be hoping to die in the war because if he survived the end of the war he can't exactly just enroll in a course at university and find a new job. He's a Spartan, created solely for war, bred to die in combat.
This would explain why he shows so little personality in the games, it seems unlikely that he would have a favourite book, or Tv Show, or happy memories of childhood. All that really remains is his training and hence it kind of makes sense that he would develop a strong emotional bond to Cortana, the AI construct that was assigned to work with him exclusivley. The moments where he talks with her are rare moments of his humanity long lost after being made into a weapon.
And yet despite all this, does he whine? No, he fights, it was what he was made for and he is determined to fight for his sense of duty.
The games don't do a great job bringing that across but really that's who Masterchief is.

 

[NEVRINx54]

"Wake me... when you need me."

i think building on the smaller characters and even the nobodies would boost what Bungie was trying portray him as.